abandoning Google
I decided this afternoon to abandon most of the Google services I use.
The reason I decided this is because one of the mailing lists that I subscribe to has decided to move itself to Google groups. And Google wants to insist that I have a Gmail account before it will let me subscribe. Actually the list admin can subscribe me to the list at a different email address, and I can just confirm it - but I still need a Gmail account if I want to make any changes to the subscription. (And when I tried clicking on the unsubscribe link, it told me that the link was not valid.)
Why am I abandoning Google? Because I’ve decided it’s too dangerous. They have their fingers (and ears) in too many places. They quite literally know more about me than my mother does. If I can keep secrets from Mom, I damn well ought to be able to keep secrets from Google.
I was willing to tolerate some loss of privacy as long as I could control where and when Google got information about me. What crossed the line for me is when I saw that people were now being required to give Google information about them as a condition of participating in things (like this mailing list) that have no relationship to Google. Between that and the vast number of different ways that Google can monitor people’s net activity (gmail, gchat, orkut, youtube, doubleclick …) that’s giving them way too much information.
Google claims to have a motto that says don’t be evil. The problem with that motto is that it conflicts with their business model. Invading people’s privacy is evil, even if they don’t plan to use that information maliciously.
So either the list will get fixed to not use Google, or I’ll unsubscribe. Meanwhile, I’ll be looking at all of the other ways Google can monitor my net traffic and take actions to curtail them significantly.
The reason I decided this is because one of the mailing lists that I subscribe to has decided to move itself to Google groups. And Google wants to insist that I have a Gmail account before it will let me subscribe. Actually the list admin can subscribe me to the list at a different email address, and I can just confirm it - but I still need a Gmail account if I want to make any changes to the subscription. (And when I tried clicking on the unsubscribe link, it told me that the link was not valid.)
Why am I abandoning Google? Because I’ve decided it’s too dangerous. They have their fingers (and ears) in too many places. They quite literally know more about me than my mother does. If I can keep secrets from Mom, I damn well ought to be able to keep secrets from Google.
I was willing to tolerate some loss of privacy as long as I could control where and when Google got information about me. What crossed the line for me is when I saw that people were now being required to give Google information about them as a condition of participating in things (like this mailing list) that have no relationship to Google. Between that and the vast number of different ways that Google can monitor people’s net activity (gmail, gchat, orkut, youtube, doubleclick …) that’s giving them way too much information.
Google claims to have a motto that says don’t be evil. The problem with that motto is that it conflicts with their business model. Invading people’s privacy is evil, even if they don’t plan to use that information maliciously.
So either the list will get fixed to not use Google, or I’ll unsubscribe. Meanwhile, I’ll be looking at all of the other ways Google can monitor my net traffic and take actions to curtail them significantly.